Old bloke wants to get fit(ter) - quickly!

Gary_Martin

Hi all, (Mitch, you might be able to help out here...) Heres the go.
Im VERY busy with work, but I want to get bike fitter efficiently - Im in okay shape for my age (34yrs two kids etc etc) but want to be better. Im 6ft (and half an inch!), and 88kgs in my jocks, want to either lose a couple of kilos or move them around a bit.

I have access to a indoor pool to do laps and do about a 3/4 kilometer a week in the pool. I have some dumbells that I can change the weights on, and a home quality gym thingy the I can do bench presses on.

What do you guys do to get in shape (without jogging preferably - used to run a bit and it stuffed my shins)??

Im hoping a combination of being fitter and learning to ride better will help me show these younger revheads a thing or two!!

Kevin_in_New_Hampshire

You should try and mimic some of the motions your bike puts you through.
Emphasis:
1-forearms and grip strength
It is very common riders grip the bars too tight, but it doesn't hurt to have stronger hands.
2-back AND abs
After Sundays race, I would be sore until Thursday. The more whoops and jumps, the more sore I would be. It is imperative you balance your back with your abs. It is the same with your hamstrings and quads. A simple exercise is just to lay flat on the floor, stomach side down, arch your back and hold your torso up.
There are so many different abs exercises, who knows. Here in the U.S., my Muscle and Fitness Magazine has "New" ab exercises EVERY month. I have re-named this mag, "Muscle & ABs". The thing to remember is normal situps don't isolate your abs. Normal situps work your abs, back, and hip flexors. Pick up any fitness mag and take your pick.
3-Shoulders
The rowing motion you use while riding.
Something I have been doing at work seems pretty good. Using dumbells or a bar, extend your arms out to a position where your bars normally are. SLOWLY bring the bar/dumbells towards your chest, then slowly extend your arms.
I have read about these "Slow" exercises. You use less weight, the workouts are quicker, it is supposed to be a more rapid strength increase, and less "heavy Weight" strain on your muscles. "They" recommend 7 seconds from full contraction to full extension. This exercise in itself will work on your hands and forearms, deltoids and shoulders, back (and abs?). If you rotate the bar/dumbels in your hands as you do this exercise, it will help your forearms/grip.
4-Legs/calves
Maybe someone else can enlighten you here. I have had major surgery on both knees and am thankful I can still walk at this time.
AVOID any impact (read: cartilage destroying)
knee exercises.
The only thing I do for my legs is use an Eliptical running machine. It simulates a very short jogging stride and has VERY LITTLE IMPACT on my precious knees. Bottom line this thing is more for my heart. But it doesn't hurt my quads/hams.

Keep up your swimming. I use to swim 1 mile a day while I was in the navy. I have never looked more trim in my entire life than I did while swimming. It is non impacting and great for your heart.

Motivation is the biggest problem. I use to exercise watching my taped ESPN MX and SX races. Now, I watch movies reserved EXCLUSIVELY for my eliptical running. Until my wife's treadmill broke, we'd run together on our machines. The advantage to looking and feeling better myself, is watching my wife look better (YUMMY!! ) AND feel better, that would be feel better to me!!

And Gary, make sure you eat your vegys and drink lots of good water!! Do not overdo the Gatorade style drinks. They are solid sugars and carbs. They do have their place, but in my opinion, they are over abused.

Now it's time for you to go crazy, but not so much that you burn yourself out and put the exercise on the back burner.

Guest_Guest_*

You can get in very good shape in about 20 minutes 3 times a week using high intensity workouts (HIT). I am 34 and have progressed faster with this method in a month that in the previous two years of long regular workouts. They talk about it on the website:http://www.cyberpump.com/

Matt_Porritt

As mentioned above MTbiking is a good way to tone up.Swimming will increace endurance.Pressups.. on yur knees will do is great for arms and trying to cure armpump.

Yet remeber.. when muscles start to hurt.. thats when they're starting to build up.Stopping when it starts getting sore is defeating the purpose almost.If you're doing preesups and after say 6 or so you arms are getting a little tired then do another 5.. the next lot are the ones that are doing the muscle building.. not the 1st lot.Do things like preesups in set.. if you're getting sore atre 6 then do another 5 and call that a set.Have a rest for a few mins (or do some exercise that ses different muscles in thta time) then go back to the pressups (or whatever)Do lots of little sessions rather than big ones..

Have fun! Thats the hardest part about exercise!

Another good one is bending over so you back is horizontal to the ground (or close) and pulling weights straight up (vertiaclly) with your arms concentrating on pulling your shoulder blades together.

I'm flat tack doing these excercises above as I have to prove to the surgeon that my arm/sholder/back is getting better.. he wants to cut me open and shorten all the ligiments and muscles in my sholder/back as I have almost twice the movement range of normal.. that sounds good but it is BAD!

Gil

What kind of event exactly, are you wishing to improve in? How often and hard do you ride? Do you have a motocross track nearby? How much time can you spend training? Do you really think 34 is old?

There are so many variables, it's hard to know what to suggest for you. I like to do local desert racing, so now while the temp's are too high, I take my son (he's 16) to a motocross track (Elsinore) one day a week where we ride to exhaustion. I make that a priority because it offers the most for the time spent, working all the right muscles, improving bike handling, and quality time with my son. Just this is enough to slowly improve, but if you only work out once a week you can't miss a workout. During the week, my next priority towards training is bicycle riding. I used to race bicycles, and it gives you legs of steel, and cardiovascular endurance that you won't believe. If you add one 90 minute bicycle ride in the middle of the week, to a long hard dirt bike workout on the weekend, you've got the beginning of a good training schedule. Again, the key is regularity. So, now if you're really motivated, if you can come up with one more day to workout, either bicycling or dirt biking, you'll see dramatic results.

Warning! Improvement in any form is motivating, and may become habit forming.

Guest_Guest_*

Mountain biking is it for me, I can not stay motivated to sit on a machine indoors or look at a wall for any amount of time.... too boring... But I will ride the bicycle 15 miles (1 hour) once or twice a week, you get a little 2 wheel similarity for the dirt bike (kind of down on HP though).... But the bicycle gets the legs and cardiovascular only... no upper.... So I've been looking for a kayak here lately, the lake is only a couple hundred feet away... but I don't know exactly what effect it will have... One experienced kayaker said it really gets his legs... to my surprise.

So_Cal_Erik

Hey Gil, what day of the week do you go tothe Elsinore track? I've been going there alot lately, maybe we could meet up there and hang out & ride. I also think that mountain biking combined with very high replight weight exercises are the way to go if you are short on time. Also, if possible, even getting to the track for just 2 hours a week (enough time to do 3 20 minute motos with rest in between) is a great way to maintain.

Guest_Guest_*

...Hey "old bloke" Gary Martin... be careful on the "get in shape quickly" part... people have hurt themselves doing too much too fast... the exercise physiologists I have talked to say it takes 4 to 6 weeks for your body to fully adapt to a new exercise program.... You can't rush it without risk... You just have to do the work and wait... If we could all get in shape in one week there would be no fat people... cuz anybody can buckle down for a week.

Bryan

By the way, when I arrived in Steamboat Springs on Friday afternoon ahead of my weekend motorcycle gang, I pulled the Titus FSR out of my truck (Full suspension custom made titanium x-country bike, Marzochi Bomber on the front, Fox shock on the back) , filled the camelback, and cranked to the top of the Gondola in Steamboat. I had to ride about 6 miles to the bottom of the ski area, cranked up the mountain single track in 45 minutes (2200 feet?) mostly 3rd gear and middle chain ring, ripped down the front side (just like motorcycling but silent yet bumpy with only 2.5 inches of travel front and back), and rode back to Daves house with a grin on my face. What a great way to warm up for a weekend of dirt biking.

Of course when I pointed out to everyone where I rode (you can see the ski mountain from Daves house), they thought I was nuts.

However, my mountain bike friends think motorcycling is easy too.

They are both fun and they are both hard and they compliment each other well.

The motorcycle helps me go faster downhill on the mountain bike and the mountain bike helps my endurance and pain threshhold on the motorcycle.

However, I do have to admit, when I ride the mountain bike for a couple of hours with a few thousand feet of verticle, once I eat and re-hydrate, I feal awesome. After I ride the dirt bike for 4 or 5 hours, MY ENTIRE BODY IS TOAST and my mind is mush!

I won't give up either sport and you can't make me! It's nice to find others that enjoy both too.

Gil

My son has a friend his age who works part time at Vons. We usually check his work schedule, and ride on his off day (either Sat. or Sun.), so he can come with us. Last weekend we rode in the afternoon on Sunday because he worked until 12:00, big mistake! It was so hot we could only ride for 10 or 15 min. at a time.

Usually we try to get there around 8:30, and park by the big track. Look for an '85 F250 (diesel) with a newer red paint job, a '00WR (see,I could have a new truck if I didn't spend so much on motorcycles!), an RM125, and if the friend is with us, a YZ125. We stay until 2:00 or so. It would be great if you came and rode with us!

You can check with me on Fridays to see what our schedule is, my cell phone is 619-993-3461. Or keep an eye out for my truck.

So_Cal_Erik

Gil, this sat., I'll be there all day riding with some friends. look for a silver Ford vanpulling a Wanderer toy hauler . Sunday theres a race all day on the big track, but the other tracks will be open for practice.Our club is holding the event, so I'll be flagging the races all that day. Anyway, if you come out on Sunday,go up to the start/finish tower ask for me and maybe they'll let me take a break and we go do a couple of hot laps over at the TT track.

So_Cal_Erik

Gil, this sat., I'll be there all day riding with some friends. look for a silver Ford vanpulling a Wanderer toy hauler . Sunday theres a race all day on the big track, but the other tracks will be open for practice.Our club is holding the event, so I'll be flagging the races all that day. Anyway, if you come out on Sunday,go up to the start/finish tower ask for me and maybe they'll let me take a break and we go do a couple of hot laps over at the TT track.